Virgil Sanders
Virgil Sanders (known as Anxiety in the earlier episodes) is Thomas Sanders' fourth and long presumed to be final Side. He represents Thomas' anxiety, and also caution, vigilance and his fight-or-flight reflex. His fellow Sides are Roman, Patton, and Logan. Unlike most Sides, he takes on a more obviously dark appearance and character. Virgil represents Thomas's anxiety and caution. He is also the voice of reason, much like Logan, but does not attempt to solve the problems he sees in the same ways Logan does. He represents all of Thomas's fear, edginess, and overall dark nature. Virgil is a self-deprecating emo (implied by Roman and Virgil himself), and has gone through a lot of development from being an antagonist in the early episodes he appeared in to a normal side that regularly appears as a main character to represent Thomas gradually becoming comfortable with his anxiety. Virgil himself has stated that he puts on his dark persona as the . Although after Accepting Anxiety, Virgil has shown his more sensitive side, cooperates more with the other sides and has started to shed his dark persona as a result of being accepted by the other sides and Thomas. Physical Appearance Former From Virgil's first episode to Fitting In, he wore a black t-shirt, with a black plaid hooded jacket over the top (unzipped). He also wore black jeans and black shoes (only shown in his first episode). He had messy black eyeliner that was smudged around his eyes. Virgil also generally has his bangs down in front of his eyes. Current From Fitting In to present, Virgil wears a custom made black hooded jacket (unzipped), with purple-and-black plaid patches sewn on. His Storm Cloud logo is found on the left part of the chest. He wears a purple dyed, long sleeve t-shirt with a slightly ripped pattern. One thing that does not change is his black eyeliner that remains smudged around his eyes and bangs in front of his eyes also remains the same. Characteristics Virgil has a notable pessimistic personality. His tendency is always to adopt the most negative interpretation, or to imagine the worst outcome of any situation. In many cases, this appears to be a confidence issue, and he is simply trying to avoid setting Thomas up for disappointment. Sometimes, the other Sides (especially Roman) find his attitude a bit annoying, while others (like Patton) take the opportunity to offer him encouragement. His negative outlook is also often employed for comedic purposes ( ). He finds that he does not fit within a specific Hogwarts House, unlike the other sides and Thomas. This was specified in the video Fitting In where in they all went through the different facet's personality traits and what they do, due to Virgil being uncomfortable with his place in the group. Room Virgil's Room is described as 'the corner of Thomas' mind to enhance his Anxiety.' The room also has a negative effect on the Sides, causing , heightening his anxiety. These negative affects can be evidenced by the sides gradually gaining black eyeshadow that mimics Virgil‘s constant black eyeliner pencil smudges, although even Virgil when in the room has a darker, more intense eyeshadow. The other sides become progressively more anxious to an extreme but they still maintain their core values that their personality fractions represent. As their anxiety heightens, Virgil's voice grows progressively more distorted and demonic. It is the first ‘Room’ to be shown, and is based on the exact location that Thomas is at - however, said location (his living room) is decorated in darker decorations. Logan's corner of the room is covered in cobwebs; spider covered curtains, or as Patton refers to it, covered curtains behind Patton's spot; a poster of The Nightmare Before Christmas and a stripy lamp behind Roman; and a clock on the wall behind Thomas whose hands move extremely quickly. Etymology Virgil's name was stated to be of Latin origin and means 'protector'. Joan had also stated that they wanted Virgil's name to "fit with Roman someway" and there was a Roman poet named Virgil. It has been confirmed they made allusions to the fact Virgil was a poet and derived the name from 'vigil' too. The poet was also a character in the story "Dante's Inferno" who assisted Dante out of the underworld (much like what happens in Accepting Anxiety Part 2). It can also mean 'strong' or 'flourishing'. Relationships Roman Virgil's relationship with Roman is a bit of a rocky one; they almost always are at odds, as the only time they're on the same side in a video (before the Accepting Anxiety arc) is during the "Growing Up" video, in which what Anxiety suggests is shoved to the side eventually. They slowly seem to be patching this up, however, as Roman is attempting to lessen the insults and Virgil does notice this. Virgil’s favorite thing about Roman is that he “goes for things” but he’s not sure if he actually likes that. He isn’t sure if he would like to be more outgoing like Roman, or if he doesn’t want to let that fear into his life. But if that’s what makes Roman happy, he says Patton Virgil seems to get along with Patton the best of all the other Sides, stating that Patton is in Accepting Anxiety Part 2. Patton cares a lot about Virgil. On rare occasions, Patton can make Virgil laugh or at least smirk. Patton typically accomplishes this with his puns, dad jokes or by simply causing Logan to lose his temper, which Virgil finds hilarious. However, in an effort to hide his feelings under a dark persona, Virgil hides his laughter by placing his hand over his smile, laughing quietly or simply repressing any signs of anything positive-related caused by Patton or any other side for that matter. Also, in the end segment of The Sander Sides 12 Days of Christmas, Virgil gives Patton a note for a Secret Santa present. The note says on the front "You make me want to die..." then on the inside, it says "Of Laughter". Underneath that phrase, it says "Best Friends" -Virgil. Logan Virgil and Logan have in common that they both see the more 'realistic' side of life, although they do conflict in several discussions, most notably in the [https://youtu.be/m-z0Q8Y9rLI My NEGATIVE Thinking] video. In this video, Virgil insults Logan several times, and at the end, he acts surprised when Logan compliments him on the debate, saying that . Deceit While initially fooled by Deceit's disguise as Patton in the Can LYING be Good?? video, Virgil grows gradually more suspicious over the course of the video, suggesting that he can identify Deceit. He does not appear to be afraid to make snide remarks at Deceit's expense, shooting back an insult about Deceit's yellow gloves when the latter says his eye shadow makes him look like a raccoon. It can also be noted that Virgil and Deceit share a hateful glance at each other. Trivia * Virgil's favorite color is purple. * Virgil is the only one whose introductory video did not feature two other Sides, but rather one other. * Virgil's eye shadow was originally eyeliner that Thomas smudged underneath his eyes. ** When it came to the Accepting Anxiety arc, the crew wanted to shade on the Sides as a gradual effect, but eyeliner made that difficult. They decided to switch to eyeshadow, which Talyn applied, and that became part of Virgil's looks. * Since Virgil's name is a direct reference to the poet of the same name, it has technically been spelled wrong all the time. * In the Q and A, it has been established Virgil would wield water. In fact, he shares a lot of things with the physical element of water, as well as its astrological personality. * Virgil initially does not normally “rise up” like the other sides do. Instead he just appears without warning. This could symbolize the fact that anxiety, which Virgil represents, can come out of nowhere for Thomas. It is something you wouldn’t notice unless you really re-watch the episodes. In the episode Moving On 2/2: Dealing With a Breakup Virgil says, The sudden change from random appearances to the 'rising up' of the other sides shows that Virgil has begun fit in with the other sides and that Thomas started to accept him as part of the group. * Previous suggestions for Virgil's name were under more 'Ethan' and 'Peyton'. Category:Sanders Sides